The hawks that soar over the cabin must experience flight as a long swooping amusement park ride. We see them perched in the trees around the house, too. It seems as though the number of hawks locally is increasing, but maybe I’m just noticing them more.

A pair of red-tailed hawks — the most common type in New York State — have taken up residence on a ledge outside the 12nd floor office of the president of NYU, of all places, overlooking Washington Square Arch. Two babies, called eyases, hatched this week, in a nest of sticks, plastic and pizza plates. White fuzzballs with jet black eyes and beaks. You can watch the development of the infants — obsessively, if you are like many New Yorkers — by checking in with the Hawk Cam set up by the New York Times. And it’s up close and personal, all the rat and pigeon tidbits the mother, Rosie, feeds the babies, usually dropped off at the nest by Bobbie, the father, and all the spewed baby hawk poop that often lands upon the lens of the camera.

The Hawk Nursery

You get fantastically close to these amazing creatures. I became totally engrossed a season ago when an eyas named Pip grew up and fledged. So check it out.